Baby, You're a Firework
by A'isha Ishtar
Summary: Every night, he asked her that question: "Will you give me that jutsu?" And every night, her answer was no. He smirked and turned to leave. "Then you stay here... hmm." She was bound to get fed up eventually. Dei/OC possible love triangle
1. Do You Ever Feel

She'd passed by the shop several times before, but she'd never worked up the courage to actually go inside. She wasn't quite sure why she could never seem to get the guts to go in. Maybe it was the bright colors of the outside that put her off. Bright colors weren't really her thing; she actually liked darker, softer colors better. Or perhaps it was the fact that the store dealt with a certain type of art that she was fluent in - they were her rivals? She didn't like conflict, so if she found anyone who was looking for what was referred to as an "art battle", she tried to not have anything more to do with them.

Or maybe it was that new boy who worked at the counter.

That boy was gorgeous, in her opinion - and she got nervous around gorgeous boys. He had this feathery blonde hair, tied into a low ponytail that went somewhere between his shoulders and the middle of his back. He had his left eye partially covered, but his eyes were a lovely baby blue color, and had been traced with black eyeliner. It looked like he was always giving somebody a grin, or apologizing while blushing when he'd made a mistake. She had yet to see him when he wasn't smiling. He wore a grayish green ninja-styled outfit, with black trimming and a dark red obi around the waist. The part of the outfit that covered his top half was open, but someone (presumably his mother) had sewn fishnet over it - and besides that, he usually wore a tank top under it, though the color of the tank top varied from day to day.

Maybe it was him that prevented her from going in. She didn't want to embarrass herself in front of him. She could say the wrong thing, get all tongue-tied, or she could trip over something in the store. She could let the blush overtake her face and then he would tease her about liking him.

But today was finally the day. She was going to go inside, and she was _going_ to talk to that boy. She was going to do this if it killed her.

Katsuko swallowed, drank down her pride, and strolled casually up to the door. There was nobody else in the store right now; this was the perfect time to go talk to him. She took a deep breath, pushed the door open (making the little bell ring), and walked inside.

The blonde boy looked up fom the magazine he was reading and smiled at her. "Good morning! Can I help you, hmm?"

She gave a wavering smile and held up a hand. "Um, h-hi."

He laughed. "You look so new here - you remind me of a lost little kitten, hmm. Just tell me what you need, I don't bite. I mean, usually, hmm... but if you tick me off I can't promise you won't get bitten. Hmm."

Why did he end his sentences like that? It was... weird. Katsuko quickly shook the thought from her head and took a few steps toward the desk. "Oh really? You don't look like you'd bite _ever_. You look nice."

"I _am_ nice... most of the time. It's just when people deliberately tick me off that I get not so nice, hmm." He rested his cheek against his hand. "So... do I get the privilege of knowing your name, hmm?"

"Only if... I get the privilege of knowing yours."

He laughed again. It was a pretty sound, a rasping drum beating over and over again. "So you're into bargaining, hmm? That's fine, so am I. My name's Deidara, hmm. I'm almost sixteen. You?"

"Um, I'm Katsuko."

"That is _such_ a beautiful name. Katsuko - means 'child of the explosion', didja know that?" He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Can't say it really suits you though, hmm. You're actually kinda quiet. How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Wow, you're young. Hmm."

She pouted at him, clenching her fists. "Am not. Maybe _you're_ just old."

A laugh escaped him. "Young _and_ funny. That's not a combination you find often besides kids saying 'underpants', hmm."

Katsuko grinned. "So what kinds of stuff do ya have in here, old man?"

"Hey hey! First of all, I ain't that old, hmm. Second, I just started here, like... two weeks ago. Third... we've got all kinds of stuff, hmm. I can't list everything - you name it and I'll tell you if we have it."

"Do you have sparklers? I need some for my cousin's birthday next week."

"Ooh-hoo, so people put an itty bitty pretty one in charge of something so important, hmm? Maybe you're more responsible than I thought at first. Hmm. Yeah, we have sparklers." He ducked down behind the counter. "How many packs do you need?"

"Uh... better play it safe and go with three. There's, like, twelve in each pack, right?"

"Ten, but you were pretty close so you're awesome anyway." He put three packs on the counter, then stood back up himself, grinning at her. "Now, uh... just let me mark these real fast, hmm." He grabbed a permanent marker from the desk and started writing on the backs of the boxes.

"Mark 'em? For what?"

"Oh, I just have to mark that these are the new kind, hmm. I'm writing it down because one time this lady forgot what I told her... yeah, that fire last week wasn't from a stove... hmm..."

Katsuko laughed. "You're funny too, Deidara."

"Thanks." He handed her the boxes. "There you go, hmm. Now where's my payment, girlfriend?"

She blushed a little, then handed him the money. "Um, there."

"Did you look at what I wrote on the box, hmm?"

"Yeah, I'll do it later."

"No, no... look real close, hmm." He turned the box over, leaning across the counter. "'Cause I wrote my phone number on it."

She blushed and looked at the back of the package. "... Cool. I might call you sometime."

He grinned and she saw that he was blushing too. "Well, I'll, um... heh... I'll be looking forward to it. Hmm."

Katsuko smiled and strolled confidently out of the store.

He _liked_ her. He was a boy and he wasn't her family and he wasn't someone she already knew and he was cute and he _liked_ her.

There were a lot of ways to go with that.

**... I don't own Naruto? Aww, I thought I did... oh well...**

**And yes, the title is from Katy Perry's song "Firework". XD I actually made a video of Deidara with that song... it reminded me a lot of him. Like "Baby you're a firework, come on show 'em what you're worth" 'cause a lot of people in his village made fun of his art. (Lots of people make fun of Katsuko's too, but we'll get into that later...)**

**Sometimes I have to wonder if some of the music artists today watch anime... every time I turn around it seems like there's another song that relates directly to one of my favorite anime characters. Like Katy Perry's "Peacock" and Yumichika from Bleach! XD And "Gotta Be Somebody" by Nickleback for Gaara. Got anymore? I might actually have to make a story about that... message me with an idea if you think I should! ^^**

**... Oh, and tell me if you liked the story too. XD**


	2. Like a Plastic Bag?

Katsuko nervously sat by the phone. It had been three days since she'd been to that shop. The unused and unneeded sparklers sat dismally in the corner of her room by her computer and a stack of books she had gotten for holidays or birthdays and didn't really want to read. She fidgeted as she tried to think of what to do.

If she didn't call Deidara today, then he would get sad or mad and think she didn't like him. She didn't want _that_ to happen. She liked him, and if he thought she didn't then he wouldn't like her anymore.

For some weird reason, she _really_ wanted him to like her.

But she didn't want to call. What would she say? The only time she had ever called a boy was to tell her jerk cousin he was a cheater. And that didn't give her the result of him liking her.

Deidara hadn't told her what he wanted her to say when she called him. Shouldn't he have told her _something_ about what she should say? If he was the one who wanted her to call him, she thought he should've given her some topic to get everything started.

She was going to have to do this sooner or later if she didn't want Deidara to not like her anymore. She took a sharp, deep breath and picked up the phone after grabbing the box of sparklers that had his number on it. She dialed quickly and then held the phone up to her ear.

After a few rings, somebody picked up. She could hear a boy (who sounded suspiciously like Deidara) yelling to somebody in the background, "I got it, Kaa-san, hmm!" Then he held the phone closer and spoke to her. "Hi, Tekuchi residence. May I ask who this is?"

Katsuko felt her heart flutter. It _was_ him. "U-Um... hi, Deidara-kun."

"Katsuko-chan!" She loved the way he sounded all excited when he heard that it was her. "Nice to hear from you again, hmm." He chuckled a little, kind of sheepishly. "To be honest, I was getting a little worried that you wouldn't call, hmm."

"Sorry, Deidara-kun." She rubbed her stomach with her other hand. "I couldn't really think of anything to say."

"That's okay, hmm. If you'd like I can do all the talking."

"Well, I... kind of wanted... to talk but... if you want to that's fine."

"If you want to talk then you should. You shouldn't just listen to me yap because you want to be polite, hmm. How about we try to find something we both have in common and then talk about that for a while?"

"Okay. Just start... you know... saying things you like and I'll tell you if I like them too."

"Okay. Hold on one second." It sounded like he was covering the phone with his hand, because his voice sounded muffled. "What? No, I don't know how long I'm gonna be on the phone, hmm. Kaa-san, would you just leave me alone? I'm talking to a _girl_!" He scoffed. "Yes, thank you, hmm!" He sounded clearer now. "Sorry about that, Katsuko-chan. Parents."

She giggled. "Don't I know it. So?"

"Oh... oh yeah! Sorry. Well, um... how do you feel about art, hmm? Mine is a big part of my life."

"Really? Mine too. I mean, I'm just getting started out and you're probably, like, a professional or something..."

"Hey, slow down," he laughed. "Don't compliment me like that, hmm. My head barely fits through the door as it is. I'm not _that_ much older than you are, hmm. Though... you're right, my art is probably better..."

"Hey! I didn't say I was bad or anything."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, hmm. But hey, I'm not a professional either. If I was a professional, do you think I'd be working in a podunk little store, hmm?"

"I guess not. So, what kind of art do you like?"

"I specialize in things that go _bang_, hmm."

Katsuko wrinkled her nose. If any other guy had said that, she would have thought it was a pathetic attempt at innuendo. But Deidara worked at a shop that sold bottle rockets and sparklers, after all... "Oh. I should've figured, by the way you seemed to know everything about everything in that store."

"Oh, I'm just working there until my art gets noticed. Not a lot of people seem to be into it though and I think that's a big mistake, hmm."

"Well, that's not fair. I'd like to see your art sometime, Deidara-kun."

"Ano, well..." Was it just her, or did he sound a little embarrassed? Like maybe he was... _blushing_ on the other end? "I'd like to see yours too, Katsuko-chan."

"Oh... cool. You know, I'm into bang art myself."

"Yeah, you mean like superflat style?"

"Yeah, that." In all actuality, Katsuko had no idea what the word superflat meant. She was just trying to impress Deidara by acting like she knew what she was talking about. Was that what professionals called art like what she made? "One time I made a robot out of soda cans that was supposed to explode..."

"How did you manage _that_?"

"Oh, I just..." She shook her head and laughed a little, trying to loosen up so she could feel a little more comfortable around Deidara. "I set it up so I dropped some Mentos in one of them and it caused a chain reaction in all the other ones."

"... You blew them up while they still had _soda_ in them, hmm?"

"Yeah... my mom was kinda mad when she came home to a carbonated living room."

Deidara laughed. "That's good, Katsuko-chan, that's really great."

"So, um, Deidara-kun..." She could feel the heat rush to her cheeks even as she said his name. What was it about him that got her like this, all hot and flustered? "I was thinking maybe we could spend more time together. But I don't know where we'd go. All the movies at the theater are horror, and I get scared really easy. And I'm not good with dancing, and I don't have any other ideas..."

"There's going to be a fireworks display this weekend, on Saturday. Maybe we could make a picnic or something and watch the fireworks, hmm. Do you like fireworks? 'Cause if you don't, I can always think of something else..."

"No! No, that sounds perfect, Deidara. I love fireworks. You have really good ideas."

"Well... you have pretty hair."

Katsuko raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

He laughed. "You complimented me, hmm. I thought it was only fair that you receive a compliment from me."

"You think I have pretty hair?"

"I like the color."

Absentmindedly, Katsuko reached up to touch her hair. It was a dull bluish hue, and it wasn't too long - just went to her shoulders, and barely that. But in the Rock Village where the most common hair colors were brown and blonde, which had developed for the sake of camoflague, it had earned her a couple of nicknames... not to mention people saying that she needed to leave before someone used her as a toilet brush. But she'd never had somebody say they thought it was pretty. "Thanks, Deidara... that means a lot to me."

"Hey, no problem. I'm always looking to notice a pretty girl like you, hmm."

"So, we're set?"

"Sure. If you bring the drinks I'll bring some food, hmm. You like bakudan?"

"Yeah, I love that. It's not my favorite but it's pretty good."

"Great, 'cause it's my favorite... and it's about the only thing I can make except toast. So don't ever count on getting a breakfast in bed from me, because if I tried I'd end up burning the house down."

She giggled. "You're so funny, Deidara. So I'll see you... let's say nine?" She guessed late because it had to be dark to see fireworks.

"Yeah, perfect. The fireworks don't start till nine-thirty so that'll give us some time to eat and talk."

"Great."

She just stood there for a minute, waiting to see if he would hang up.

"You still there, Katsuko-chan?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should hang up now, hmm."

"Yeah, maybe."

"On three, then. One."

"Two."

"Bye-bye." Deidara's half of the line went dead.

Katsuko smiled as she blankly pressed the button on her own phone. "Bye."

She let out a breath as she sat down on her bed. Maybe she should go set those sparklers off now, because she just had her first date.

Her eyes snapped open. Oh God, she was going to go on her first date.

Her mother was going to hug her to death.

**OK so mostly right now it's gushy teen OMG-I-found-my-first-love stuff, but don't worry, the action will come soon enough. I PROMISE.**

**Thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing! ^^**


	3. Drifting Through the Wind

There were several times in her almost-adult life that Katsuko felt inhumanly stupid, but this _had_ to take the cake.

She was standing in the middle of a field (which in Iwagakure translated to a barren piece of flat land littered with boulders and pebbles), holding two bottles of ramuné, at nine-ten, waiting for Deidara who hadn't shown up.

Her first thought, naturally, was that he had just decided not to come. He had wooed her and fooled her and he was going to tell everybody how gullible she was. He had tricked her heart into fluttering at twice its normal beat when he was speaking to her or looking at her, and now he had just made that drop to just a fraction of its normal pace. Her first instinct was not to be furious, but to just be... hurt. What pleasure would _he_ get from humiliating her? It didn't benefit him in any way...

She threw her arms, still holding the ramuné in her hands, over her eyes and began to cry. Sobs tore from her chest, her shoulders shaking as tears soaked in her jacket sleeves. Why would he do something like this? He had nothing to gain by destroying her reputation! All he'd get out of it was a good laugh, and even that wouldn't last long.

Was this what she'd always read about in her mother's shinobi romance novels? Was this what they called heartbreak?

Out of nowhere she felt someone's hand on her arm. "Katsuko-chan! Hey, sorry I'm late, hmm. My mom wanted to talk to me about some rules and stuff and... hey. Hey." Gloved hands brought her arms down, and she was looking into the bright blue... um, eye... of Deidara, her almost-boyfriend. He looked worried, his eyebrow arched down in a U shape. "Katsuko-chan, what's the matter, hmm? No, wait, I can guess. Somebody was here, weren't they? What did they say to you, hmm?"

She felt more tears spring to her eyes as she realized he _had_ come. She was wrong. How could she have thought such awful things about him? How could she have thought that he was that bad of a person? She didn't deserve to be on this date with him if she thought like that. "N-No, Deidara-kun..."

"No, seriously, Katsuko-chan! Just... Just tell me." He put his arm around her, drawing her closer to try and stop her crying. "Seriously. Whose ass am I kicking, babe, hmm?"

She tried to wiggle away, but he was holding her tightly. It actually felt kind of... good. And he smelled nice... like cologne or something. She felt safe when he was holding her like this. Like she never wanted to go anywhere else. "Deidara-kun, no! No, it's not that!"

"Then why are you crying? What happened? Did you get hurt waiting for me?"

"I... I..." She tossed her arms, ramuné bottles and all, around him, holding tight as she was able and trembling. "I'm just happy you're here, no da! I thought you weren't coming. I was so worried, no da..."

Deidara let go of her and tilted his head to the side, letting the hand that held a paper bag fall to his side. "How come you're talking like that, hmm?"

"What do you mean? I'm talking normally, no da."

"No, _that_. That 'no da' you're saying after everything, hmm."

Katsuko blinked. She was doing that? She wasn't exactly sure why, and why it had started so suddenly. "I... I dunno. You talk like that, no da? You add 'hmm' after everything."

"Is it really that annoying, hmm?"

"It can be, no da."

"Weird. Could you try to stop?"

"I can try."

"Do you want me to stop too?"

"No! Yours is cute. Mine is just annoying. I like yours." She shook her head. "Hey! I'm not doing it anymore."

"You're right, you're not, _no da_," Deidara teased, giving her his version of a noogie - in which he really didn't do anything but rub his palm on top of her hair. "Come on, let's eat. I got here late, the fireworks start in less than half an hour, hmm. I like to be free to observe when I'm looking at art, and food would just distract me. You have the ramuné, hmm?"

* * *

The fireworks were nothing short of breathtaking. Katsuko's eyes were glued to the sky the entire time as it was lit with bright flashes of every color in the rainbow. Some of the explosions would temporarily blind her, at which point she would retreat into the safety of Deidara's stomach, and he would laugh, rubbing her back. He thought it was cute the way she immediately came to him if she was scared or in pain, and he said he liked that he made her feel secure.

She liked the sensation that surrounded her everytime she was in his arms or against his skin. The warmness swallowed her up and made her feel like nothing would ever hurt her if Deidara could do anything about it; and she had a feeling there was a lot he could do about it. She wanted to have that feeling all the time, the feeling of being totally safe and having a comfortable heat around her.

"Look at that one, Katsuko-chan! Bang, hmm!" Deidara chuckled, and as she was buried in his tummy at the moment she could feel the rumble of his laughter through his abdominals. It made her giggle and just hold onto him tighter.

She felt him rubbing her back again. "Are you getting tired, Katsuko-chan, hmm? Maybe I should take you home."

"I'm a little tired, but the fireworks are almost over." She pushed herself up and rested her head just on his shoulder. "I can stay awake."

"Good." His arm found its way around her, and the fabric of his gloves tickled against her bare shoulder as he rubbed it. "Are you cold, hmm? You kinda look like it."

"A little, but I'll be alright. I probably should have brought a blanket."

"Hey, it's okay. I can keep you warm, hmm."

"Yeah, I know." Her hand drifted up to his shoulder and she slid her fingers over his.

He instantly drew his hand away, but then his hand went lower to massage her stomach. "Does this feel good?"

"Mmm... yeah."

"Hey!" He straightened up, but his hand was still on her stomach. "The finale's starting, hmm! C'mon, let's watch it!"

She raised her head from his shoulder and looked up at the sky. But then she glanced over at Deidara, and her eyes were fixated on him. His hair was being blown back by the wind, in blonde waves that whipped around his face. But he didn't seem to care. His baby blue eyes, almost the same shade as her hair, were completely focused on the fiery designs in the sky, each a different color and pattern. His lips were parted just a little to reveal a segment of his perfect teeth, showing that he was enthralled by the Roman candles blowing up in front of him, studying them intently as if to better his own art by seeing them. "... Hey, Deidara-kun?"

"Yeah, Katsuko-chan?"

"Don't people usually... I dunno, um..." Even as she thought of how to phrase it her face was slowly turning red. "I mean, at the end of a date, isn't there usually... some kinda... well, I mean... uh..."

His shoulders shook with a small laugh, and he looked over at her, finally tearing his gaze from the fireworks. "Katsuko-chan, do you wanna _kiss_ me?"

The clinched it, and Katsuko knew that if the sun was actually out, Deidara would be looking at a girl whose face was completely, totally, bright red. "I... I... well, I've never... kissed anyone before... and it seems like you've..."

"Had a lot of experience? Not really. To tell you the truth, I've never really kissed anyone either, hmm. On the cheek, but never the lips. See, there's this secret I have... but I can't tell you what it is yet, hmm. And when girls find out about it, they usually... ano... run off screaming and refuse to speak to me ever again."

"I'd never do that!" She wrapped both of her arms around one of his that was closest to her and rubbed her cheek up against his skin. "You're nice, and no matter what secrets you have it won't change how I see you. I mean really. I don't care. You're the first guy who's ever... like me no matter what my hair color is, or what kind of art I like... I wouldn't throw that away."

"Katsuko..." The friendly honorific now dropped, he was getting closer to her. He had put his free hand (the one she wasn't hugging the hell out of) on the other side of her leg, and was leaning in now. His hitai-ate gone, she was met with the cool skin of his forehead as he got even closer. She could feel his breath against her lips, and his breath smelled like mint. "Thanks a lot, hmm... I really like you. Better than any girl I've ever met."

Her heartbeat quickened in her chest, thumping up against her ribcage, but for some reason she didn't want it to stop. Blood pounded against her ears but she didn't mind that. All she could focus on were Deidara's lips. Would they taste as good as they looked? How would they feel against her own lips? She decided there was only one way to find out. "I like you too... please Deidara... please just kiss me..."

"No problem."

With that, their lips connected. His felt so soft on hers, so plush and moist but not too wet. It was hard to describe but it filled her with a sort of electricity. As they kissed his hands were roving her body, sliding down her waist and rubbing her hips but never going higher or lower. Her hands found their way to his shoulders, digging her palms into the bones and then her fingers pinching his neck in an intense massage. Eventually they both lost their balance, Katsuko falling down and landing over him, but even that didn't break their kiss.

The finale continued to explode behind them, a more-than-willing backdrop and soundtrack for the first taste of natural drunkenness filling both their minds.

**OK so ramuné is like Japanese soda (it's REALLY awesome but the way you have to open the bottle is so freaking weird but it's worth it), and "no da" basically means "you know". I wanted to kind of give her a verbal tic so I searched all over for one that wouldn't sound too odd. Will it come back? Who knows.**

**... I liked writing this. As you can tell I seriously love romance.**

**LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT CHAPTER WHEEEE!**

**... Bye bye for now then. ^^**


	4. Wanting to Start Again

Katsuko spent a glorious six months with Deidara. After he had officially declared her his girlfriend, they spent every waking moment they could together. When he wasn't working, they were at either his house or hers, creating art together. If they weren't creating art (hard to believe that sometimes they didn't feel like it), they were at the movies or the café or just walking around, looking at the town and window-shopping and enjoying each other. Sometimes they didn't even have to talk. Katsuko was happy because she had never just not talked to someone and felt lucky to be with them.

Since Deidara was a ninja (and Katsuko had yet to enter the Academy), he was busy a lot of the time on weekdays. That meant on weekdays, Katsuko was bored to death. She would sit around her house in the balming heat, having draped herself over the kitchen table and in front of the only electric fan in the house, with the phone beside her, waiting for him to call and say that Tsuchikage-sama had given him the day off. Every so often she would get a snack; sometimes she would unplug the fan, take her whole "Deidara Central" hookup to the living room, and lie down on the couch to watch TV with the fan aimed at herself. Sometime after that was usually when her mother would come in and take the fan back to the kitchen, berating Katsuko for being so selfish.

Sometimes, when her mother was out of town, Katsuko would just let Deidara sleep over at her house. She knew she wasn't supposed to have anybody over while her mother was out, much less her boyfriend. But that was what made it all the more thrilling; there was always some rush to committing the forbidden.

And usually it wasn't just because she felt like it; that she called him up and asked if he wanted to come over tonight. More often than not it was because Deidara had come from a tough mission or strenuous training, something where he hadn't gotten to see her for a while and they were both missing each other. He would call her and tell her that he was coming back from a mission, and she'd either say he could come or not, depending on whether her mom was home or not. A lot of times she wasn't lucky and he called when her mom was still home; but that just made the nights spent together even more special.

Deidara would then call his own mother, Shizuka Tekuchi, and tell her he was spending the night at Katsuko's, which Shizuka didn't mind because she was busy taking care of Deidara's cousins; they came to visit often so that their parents could go on missions. Soon after he called her, he arrived at Katsuko's house, and because she'd unlocked the door for him, he came right in.

He'd call her name a few times, and then lie down on the couch. He was usually too tired to move much, so he just collapsed. Soon after, Katsuko would creep into the living room with a blanket and, if he'd told her he was hurt, the first-aid kit. She would lie down next to him, and treat his wounds if he needed it. If not (or when she was done), she simply curled up next to him, laid her body against his, and just held him... let him hold her. He wasn't usually asleep before she got there, and they might talk for a few minutes. They didn't talk about anything in particular really. He would tell her about the mission or training, how hard it had been or how easy it had been (even if he was hurt, the stubborn ass), and then he'd ask how her art was coming along. She'd say fine, and ask how _his_ was. And he'd just grin at her, kiss her forehead, and go, "_My_ art is a bang, as always."

During the six months she was together with Deidara, many things happened. Though Deidara hadn't yet been promoted to Chunin rank, Tsuchikage-sama did recognize his talents. He allowed Deidara to operate a small dojo while the rest of his team was going through their afternoon training exercises. Deidara seemed very happy about it, though he was tired more often and Katsuko didn't like to see him tired or sick. But if he was happy, then she was happy.

Also, Katsuko turned fifteen. Her mother had begrudgingly agreed to let Deidara make her birthday cake, since he had practically _begged_, but from what Deidara had told Katsuko, the woman had hovered over him every minute, smacking him on the head with a wooden spoon if he didn't do it right. Katsuko thought it was a little funny, though the bruises on Deidara's forehead begged to differ. The cake turned out great though, with a bunch of frosted fireworks above the words _Happy Sweet 15, Katsuko-chan_ in red icing. She couldn't quite imagine Deidara standing over the cake, squeezing out the decorating gel and meticulously painting each mini explosion onto the cake, but he boasted that he did it all by himself. It tasted okay, at least.

Towards the end of the six months they spent together, Katsuko began to notice a shift in Deidara's behavior and disposition. He was spending more nights at her house, which he had talked to her mother about. Apparently, his aunt was pregnant and, therefore, could not go on missions; she was staying at his house along with his cousins, and Shizuka was having a hard time with it all. Deidara said that sometimes there wasn't anything to eat when he got home from the dojo, and so he had to spend what little money he earned to get food - sometimes for everyone. He wanted to help his family and give his room to his aunt, but he wouldn't have had anywhere to go, so he asked Katsuko's mother (a gutsy move if she ever saw one.) She agreed, but later complained that her daughter was becoming a housewife. It was partly due to the fact that, because Katsuko wanted to make sure her boyfriend, the first (and at the moment only) love of her life, was taken care of, she made a separate dinner for herself and Deidara. She also was openly romantic with him, but toned it down in the company of her mother.

So when Deidara got off work at the dojo, he came straight to Katsuko's house. When he would come home now, he would be insanely tired and sometimes irritable. He would drop down on the couch, hugging his duffel bag that said _DEIDARA SENSEI_, and try to fall asleep. When Katsuko would bring him dinner, he wouldn't want to sit up and eat. More often than not he ended up with his head on her lap, being spoon-fed. Sometimes he sat up and ate, but during those times all he did was complain anyway.

That was another thing that had changed. Katsuko knew her boyfriend as an upbeat, optimistic person. He was always happy, and if someone said anything negative, he would immediately try to take the positive out of it, smiling all the while. But lately that part of him seemed... gone. Gone, or just resting maybe. She didn't know, but she missed it. He was always in a bad mood now. If he wasn't angry and criticizing everyone, he was depressed and didn't want to talk at all.

The complaints were mostly about one thing: his art. "I know my art hasn't been that great lately," he would grumble as he crossed his arms, "but do stupid assholes really have to call it crap, hmm?" He said that some villagers had been coming to the dojo and making fun of the fact that some of the ninja techniques he used he called them art. He'd recounted one time that a man told him it wasn't good as art, it wasn't even useful as a jutsu. That time he had just come home, gone straight up to his room, and stayed there until morning. Katsuko had gone to check on him once, but when she tried to ask him what was wrong, all he did was grunt and shrug her hand off his shoulder.

She was really worried about him. It didn't seem like these people would let up and give him a break, and he was a sensitive person. He was the kind of person who got upset and mad at the littlest thing someone said. It was like if somebody insulted him, that was the same as a slap to the face.

She just hoped people - Deidara included, the hothead - didn't take this to a physical level. She really didn't want to get a call saying her boyfriend was in the hospital.

**WOW. Not a lot of real action in this chappie. Mostly it was a kind of filler to explain how their relationship had become over the course of six months before some of the rising action starts. There will DEFINITELY be some in the next chapter, I PROMISE.**

**... And sorry for not updating sooner. I'm trying! But this time it was NOT my fault. I had this done WEEKS ago and wouldn't let me update it! Bogus right? Well, I'm glad they fixed the problem so here you go everyone!**

**Love to you and all reviews show me love! ^^**


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